Russia - Ivan Bunin

Sunstroke

Published

March 6, 2022

Ivan Bunin

IVAN BUNIN, the first Russian writer to win the Nobel Prize (1931), was born in 1870 to an aristocratic family in Vorornezh. After attending the University of Moscow briefly, he brought out his first book, a volume of verse. For this and his realistic accounts of the decay of the Russian nobility, he was awarded the Pushkin Prize for Literature and elected to the Russian Academy. He fled to western Europe, following the Revolution, and lived mainly in Paris, sometimes nearly destitute, until his death at the age of eightythree. His study of the dying patriarchy among Russian peasants raises him into the front rank of European novelists, but his present reputation rests on his short stories, in such collections as The Gentleman from San Francisco and The Grammar of Love. In many of his stories he contrasts the transitoriness of human life with the endurance of beauty and nature. Somerset Maugham has called “Sunstroke” one of the world’s best stories.

Story

We will read Ivan Bunin’s short story, Sunstroke

Themes

  • First Love
  • Shipboard Romances ( cliche )
  • Time and Memory, Senses
  • “River of Life” situation
  • One Night Stands?
  • Adultery: Bad for Life but good for Literature?
  • Men Don’t Cry?

Additional Material

The Map of the Story


  1. Ivan Bunin – Biographical. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2022. Sat. 5 Mar 2022. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1933/bunin/biographical/

Notes and References

  1. MahAkavi KAlidAsa, “raghuvaMsham” (Dynasty of Emperor Raghu, 8th chapter, 95 verses). https://sanskritdocuments.org/sites/giirvaani/giirvaani/rv/sargas/08_rv.htm

The Lament of Aja

विललाप स बाष्पगद्गदम् सहजामप्यपहाय धीरताम्| अभितप्तमयोऽपि मार्दवम् भजते कैव कथा शरीरिषु॥ ८-४

vilalāpa sa bāṣpagadgadam sahajāmapyapahāya dhīratām| abhitaptamayo’pi mārdavam bhajate kaiva kathā śarīriṣu || 8-43

  • saH sahajAm api dhIratAm apahAya = he, naturally though, firmness, on forgoing;
  • bAShpa gadgadam vilalApa = with tears, stammer, bewailed;
  • abhitaptam ayaH api mArdavam bhajate = when excessively heated, iron, even, softness, acquires;
  • sharIriShu kaiva kathA = of those possessing bodies, what, can be said.

Having even given up his natural fortitude, Aja bewailed stammering on account of his being choked with tears. Even iron when excessively heated acquires softness; what then can be said in respect of those possessing bodies. [8-43]

  1. Porter, Richard N. “Bunin’s ‘A Sunstroke’ and Chekhov’s ‘The Lady with the Dog.’” South Atlantic Bulletin 42, no. 4 (1977): 51–56. https://doi.org/10.2307/3199025.

Chekhov’s “The Lady with the Dog”and Bunin’s “A Sunstroke” have much in common, are frequently mentioned in connection with each other, and lend themselves to comparison. By discerning what features of the stories are alike and unlike one can learn much about the overall similarities and differences of the authors.

The plots of both stories are familiar. “The Lady with the Dog” is about Dmitry Dmitrich Gurov, a banker from Moscow, not yet forty, married, and the father of three children, and Anna Sergeevna von Dideritz, who has married two years before and now lives in the provincial city of S. They meet in Yalta, where they are spending their vacations alone. Soon they have an affair. Despite qualms on Anna’s part, they are fairly happy, but Gurov is relieved when she goes. At home in Moscow, he is surprised find that he does not forget her quickly. Instead, he misses her more and more and decides to go to S. to see her. She is surprised but admits that she has thought of him often and arranges to visit him occasionally in Moscow. On her visits, they meet in her hotel room. Although they find some happiness, they realize that the most difficult part of their affair is just beginning.

“A Sunstroke” is about a lieutenant and a young married woman, both of them anonymous, who meet on a Volga river boat. They are immediately drawn to each other and agree to get off at a small town, where they spend the night. When the woman leaves the next morning, the lieutenant does not mind her going; but later in the day he realizes that he misses her desperately. He cannot go after her because she has not told him her name. He tries unsuccessfully in various ways to overcome his sense of loss, and, when he takes the boat that evening, he feels that he has grown ten years older.

Songs for the Story !!

A torch ballad by Phil Collins!


And an equally good lament by the lady: Vacation, by the Go-Gos.

Writing Prompts

  1. Don’t be a Crybaby
  2. “Tere Bina Zindagi se Koi” story in English
  3. …
Back to top